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Covering the world

How the Girly Book Club grew into a global network of thousands of readers

FEATURE

BY SUE CARTER

Erin Woodward stumbled by accident into her position as one of the most influential book-club organizers in the world. When she moved to London in 2008 to be with her boyfriend, she found the city a tough place to meet people. But Woodward was committed to her relationship, and knew if she wanted to keep living in the U.K. she would need to make some new friends. She checked out local book clubs on the social-networking website Meetup, and when she couldn’t find one that suited her tastes, she decided to start her own. A week later, Woodward logged onto the site and discovered that 100 people had signed up for her group. “I just wanted eight friends,” she says. “But I thought, clearly there’s a need for this, so I left it open.” That was the beginning of the Girly Book Club.